Tag Archives: Crewel

I had discarded the fraying flannel pages that I’d quickly snipped out from the inside cover of the needle book. It’s possible that if I’d adjusted the tension on my sewing machine as RM suggested I could have kept the flannel from stretching, but nothing I could do would have kept the flannel from fraying. It was simply not the right material for this job.

Today I’m going to explain how I made my new needle book…at least the first part of the process. Next time you’ll be ble to read all about the rest of the process and see the finished needle book.

After I’d finished the stitching, the first thing that needed to be done was to cut it to the correct size. Remember when cutting the finished embroidery, you will need to leave 3/4 inch or 2 cm extra fabric beyond the edge of the cover. This extra fabric will be turned under later.

The best way to ensure straight lines when cutting the embroidered linen is to pull threads out of the linen at the top, bottom, left and right sides of the design.

Ever since I found out that milliners needles made bullion knots really easy to do, I have loved doing them. Before I made that discovery, I dreaded them. Bullion knots were difficult, messy and usually had to be done at least more than once. Now that I know which needle to use, they’re a piece of cake!

What’s the difference between a milliner’s needle and another needle? Most of the other needles we use to embroider are tapered; a bit wider at the eye end of the needle and getting narrower towards the point end of the needle. Milliners needles are the same thickness from the eye to just before the tip.

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With Threaded Needle

The courses offered by “With Threaded Needle” were developed with four aims: 1) to provide excellent long distance teaching, 2) to embroiderers all over the world, 3) who wish to be part of an online community of embroiderers, 4) at a reasonable cost.
Course material is sent via email as a PDF so you can participate in a course whether you live next door to me or as far away as New Zealand. The projects we will create are designed for beginner to intermediate level students and help is only an email away! The cost for each course will always be reasonable, making a course with “With Threaded Needle” accessible to everyone. It’s possible to pay for your course in a single payment or to spread out the payments over the length of the course, with payments being as little as $8 a month.
For more information, click on the With Threaded Needle logo above!

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überlegen – to think, consider, ponder, deliberate

For centuries women have done needlework. It was a necessary skill, it was an accomplishment, it was a chance to appear to be active while giving ones mind free rein to consider, to think.
Calm, slow, careful stitches gave the appearance of activity, skill and usefulness, but the mind was free to think, to be quiet, to wander...
An unbroken thread of women, stitching quietly, their minds pondering, considering, thinking, deliberating...for ages and ages.